Some of the core elements of customer service are valuing a customer, speed, and
eliminating stupid rules and policies. How many companies, world-wide are open
to providing excellent customer service?....not many!

We have a large logistics and shipping client in Russia, PEC with 10,000 employees and we wanted to print all the materials in Kazakhstan because we have printed all of our Russian
product there previously. Here’s what happened: Out of 12 printers contacted, no one
wanted over $70,000 in printing every year. Too much work. Too complicated to
fill out the paper work so the product could be shipped to Russia.
So, PEC agreed to amend our contract and allow us to print in Russia. Marina
Lukyantseva, our VP of Russia & CIS contacted 20 printers in Moscow. Seven
never responded. Marina now is dealing with the owner of one firm who is willing
to work with us in dollars.

So unfortunate that most firms do not value new business. Experience has show
that if you entered a new city anywhere in the world and call 10 firms, less than
30% would return a call, whether you call a travel agent, printer, insurance company,
etc. This goes for manufacturers in the U.S. too. Seems they are so fat and
lazy they do not need to respond to requests for exporting products worth over
$170,000. For instance, I am working with Tram Tran in Vietnam and she finds
U.S. firms do not need more orders like this. (Amazing).

One of the biggest problems I find is most employees do not know they are in customer
service. Salespeople are some of the biggest offenders of customer service.
They look at it as too much work. They abide by stupid rules and policies that
can destroy a business. They follow the stupid rules and policies without ever making an empowered decision.
Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon said
, “If you want more of something reduce
the friction. If you want less of something increase the friction.”
Amazon grew $41.9 billion in 2017, making them the most customer driven firm in the world. You’d think more people would wonder how they did it.

You never know which door a customer wants to come in.
Focus on the total customer experience. These are some steps I suggest you focus on during 2019.

Make it easy for customers to do business with your organization.

Eliminate stupid rules and policies.

Master speed. Reduce the time it takes customers to do anything by 90%

Focus on empowerment. This means every employee MUST make decisions on the spot in favor of the customer. If you have over happy customers they tell their friends and…keep spending.

Use the customer’s name. Only about 5% of the time will employees use your name. Remember, nothing is more valuable than the customers' name.

Everyone has to use Service Recovery. Things go wrong all the time. To say I am sorry is not Service Recovery. Not more than 1% of companies in the U.S. practice Service Recovery.

The most important person in every company is the front line employee. This individual is typically the least valued, least paid and least trained. This person is the face of your company, you need to train them on customer service with a new program ideally every 4 months. Not every 4 years.

When Your Boss Steals Your Ideas
The Wall St. Journal on November 29, 2019 had a full page article on this topic. Sue Shellenburger said, "Nothing frustrates employees more than a manager taking undue credit."

"You share an idea with your boss, only to see him present it in a meeting as his own. Or you slave through the night on a presentation, and your manager takes credit for the whole thing." -
Wall Stree Journal

Service Quality Institute has 2 Idea Campaigns, also called
Employee Involvement
that are 30 day campaigns that get 80-90% of employees to participate.

1) Good Idea Campaign
that focuses on quality and customer satisfaction.

A 30-day special event encourages everyone to seek out ways to improve their work and eliminate recurring problems facing the company. More than 3,000 companies have successfully used the Good Idea Campaign.

2) Bad Idea Campaign, Buck a Day (BAD).
The focus is on getting every employee to look for a way to save $1 a day. There are about 250 working days a year. If you have 1000 employees this is $250,000 in savings. Employers typically are not interested in saving $5, $30 or $60. No employee is going to the owner to tell them they have a way to save $50.

The BAD campaign gets every employee involved in a fun recognition driven 30 day campaign to looks for a way to save just $1 a day. It is fast. The focus is on recognition, involvement and implementation.

Service Quality Institute guarantees the savings will exceed the investment in BAD or we refund the difference. For 100 employees the investment is $30 a person and the price drops to $12 a person for 50,000 employees or more.

Great customer service is telling the truth
.
I believe most employees lie.
I rarely believe employees. Their goal is to get rid of you as fast as they can. If there’s a problem there is an 80% chance the employee will lie. They want to avoid the problem. They figure you will not remember who you talked to.

Harvey Mackay in his national syndicated column at Harvey Mackay University released an article about lying.

People lie for a variety of reasons. Fear and avoiding punishment is a natural reaction, an excuse often offered by children. Another is escaping embarrassment and at the same time improving your image to impress or mislead others. This is where ego comes into play. People want to be seen as good, polite and successful.

People also like to protect themselves or someone else from harm. You don’t want to get a family member or co-worker in trouble, so you lie for them to keep them out of danger. Let’s face it; some people just lie for the thrill of it. And we all know someone who just seems to have a problem with the truth – it’s like they just can’t help themselves.

Sadly, we live in a time where lying isn’t treated as seriously as it should be. Businesses must be honest if they want to survive. Truth is a virtue that must be taught at a young age, long before a first job. It should never be optional.

Pamela Meyer, author of “Liespotting,” gave a TED Talk about how to spot a liar. She claims we are lied to between 10 and 200 times every day. She also says that four out of every ten things our children tell us are lies. Two out of every 10 things we tell our spouses are lies.

Research by McGill University of Montreal found that by age three, roughly 40 percent of children begin telling lies – even though they know it is wrong. Fortunately, most tots aren’t great liars. Studies conducted all over the world revealed that when pressed for more information, children will often betray their own deception with a smile or other facial expressions, or by uttering the truth. However, once these children turn four years old, 74 percent of them will engage in telling lies and become better at maintaining their falsehoods when questioned.

Christmas and New Year’s Gifts That Can Change Lives
Most firms give candy, fruit, and gift baskets to their customers. In a few days it is consumed.

I encourage you to give one of my books to your customers or friends for Christmas or New Years .It can change lives and help your customers improve the customer experience. In volume there are significant price breaks. You can mix and match for volume pricing.

We ship the day we get the order
.

Moving Up
:
It gets people to believe in themselves, to remove self-imposed limitations To help people become indispensable and extraordinary. Also an exceptional gift for your children and friends.

Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service
: T
his is the strategy every firm should use to create a service culture. This book is in its 10th edition. The bible of customer service. An excellent gift to owners of businesses. Also available in Spanish.

Empowerment - A Way of Life
:
No firm can be successful without empowerment. It is the most difficult skill for employees to use. A must read for anyone that wants to deliver great service. Hard cover. Easy to read. Also available in Spanish.

The Customer is Boss:
Learn how to demand good service and get what you paid for. How to effectively complain when you get lousy service.

Cashing In
:
Make More Money, Love your Job and Get Promoted. Also available in Spanish.

FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE
SERVICE FIRST VIDEO LIBRARY CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS SPECIAL
Ends December 31st

SQI has a 12 session program called the Service First Video Library. It is magic. You can teach your entire workforce the art of superior customer service with a new DVD (Also on flash drive) each week or each month.

If you would like to view more details including a part of the video, leader guide, PowerPoint, and Participant Material,
please visit our site
.

We offer 2 free gifts with your order:

A copy of my book Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service

My speaking video with tactics for senior management.

The price is 10 easy installments of $199 each for 10 months via a credit card or one installment of $1,697 and you save $293.
FREE SHIPPING WORLD WIDE THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2018
No Ifs, No Ands, No Buts Your satisfaction is guaranteed or your money back.

There are no recurring costs because you download the participant material and you have permission to reprint as many as you want. You can train your entire staff for $199 a month. We ship all 12 videos plus the 2 gifts with your order.

Place your order now. FREE shipping now through December 31, 2018 worldwide via Federal Express. You can do a wire transfer, pay by Paypal, or credit card. US firms can be invoiced and pay by check. Call 800-548-0538 or 952-884-3311 If on our
web site
Use the code
Free Shipping

Why Use the SQI Online Learning Portal?

Our portal of online courses is a comprehensive training solutions that continues customer service, soft skills and compliance training all in one easy to use solution. Companies offer the online learning portal to all levels of employees as an innovative, new training program that increases engagement, provides development opportunities and builds organizations knowledge.

We can also brand the site with your company logo, imagery, text and custom URL

We have also 14 customer service courses to choose from for our online learning or you can choose the Gold or Platinum levels with 60 – 100 courses.

The Service Quality Institutes’ innovative online certification courses are designed to cultivate a general standard of exemplary service by empowering each employee with the tools needed for consistent success in their daily interactions.

For more information and special pricing contact Brook Brown

Cell 1-952-232-9932
Brook@servicequality.com

It will play on mobile devices. Each of the 14 courses have a substantial amount of live video in the course.
Click here to order
.

What's New at SQI?

NEW SQI Web Site!!!

Before December 20 SQI will have a new upgraded web site. Take a look later this month on our web site. On the new web site you have a link at the top lets you change the language to many other languages like Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Greek etc.